No, not that head. I'm talking about my drivers side cylinder head on a 69 GS 400. Just pulled the heads off of this thing to clean 'em up and look into a seperate problem. There is something resembling a mutant push rod inside of the cylinder head. There is definately no way to get it out without cutting hte head open in a few spots. Not that we are going to. It doesn't seem that it will affect anything, just wandering what this is. If I can figure out this resizing thing I'll post some pics. Also, if one, or both of the cylinder heads are cracked, we're getting 3-4 tbs. of coolant under the valve covers, can they be repaired? Or should they become junked?
I found the same thing in the coolant passages in my 69 430 heads. I believe they are leftover from the casting process. Part of the mold and sand cast release assembly. I was able to shake some of them out and grabbed some with a side cutter. I'm sure they aren't doing any harm by leaving them in there.
Those are support rods used in the casting process to hold the water jacket cores together. After the casting process, the sand breaks away, but the rod stays in there, does'nt cause any problems. The heads can usually be reapired, either with welding or pinning, sometimes referred to as lacing. I have repaired some of those over the past years, but now, I would simply prefer to not spend money on that and just put money into new alum heads. Jim Burek
